Taiwan's navy plans a NT$18.3 billion second Panshih-class supply ship to replace the ageing Wuyi

Taiwan's navy plans to build a second large fuel and ammunition replenishment ship modelled on the locally built Panshih, to replace the Wuyi before it wears out, the Liberty Times reported on 12 November, citing military sources. The programme has a total budget of NT$18,283,015,000, or about NT$18.3 billion.

The Wuyi, hull number AOE-530, joined the fleet in 1989 and has now served for 37 years. It will reach its 40-year design life in 2029, and the navy will set a decommissioning date after reviewing the ship's overall condition, according to the report.

The navy has only two such ships, the Wuyi and the Panshih, which between them can resupply its two surface combat flotillas at sea at the same time. To avoid a gap when the older ship leaves service, the navy decided to start the follow-on ship programme early, with the aim of having the new vessel delivered and commissioned for combat readiness duty by the end of 2032, the military sources said.

Replenishment ships do not fight on the front line, but they decide whether a fleet can keep operating far from shore for long periods. In wartime, when ports could be blockaded or damaged, they can refuel and rearm warships while under way at sea and help move urgent supplies between ports, cutting the number of risky trips warships would otherwise make back to harbour, the paper said.

The Panshih, hull number AOE-532, is the largest ship in active service with the navy. It displaces 20,859 tonnes at full load and is 196 metres long and 25.5 metres wide, with a top speed of more than 22 knots and a range of 8,000 nautical miles. Three pairs of replenishment rigs amidships let it pass about 220,000 gallons of fuel and four tonnes of ammunition an hour to ships on both sides at once, and it also carries hospital-grade medical spaces and a helicopter deck, according to the Liberty Times.

The Panshih was commissioned in 2015 at the Zuoying naval base in Kaohsiung in a ceremony attended by then President Ma Ying-jeou, alongside the first Tuo Chiang-class corvette, USNI News reported at the time. Besides supporting warships, it was designed for personnel transport, rescue at sea and humanitarian aid. In June this year the navy's goodwill squadron reached Palau with the Panshih as its flagship, the Liberty Times noted.

The military said the new ship would keep the Panshih design's strengths in mobility, protection and replenishment capacity. Once in service, it would share the logistics burden for the navy's two surface combat flotillas or special missions with the Panshih and strengthen the fleet's ability to sustain operations at sea, the report said.